Review: Evangelion 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo (ヱヴァンゲリヲン新劇場版:Q)

The main male protagonist, now 28 years old, asking questions I also wanted to be answered.

As mentioned in the previous entry of this blog, today’s review is for the third Evangelion reboot movie titled Evangelion 3.0 You Can (Not) Redo, which in hindsight, really fits the plot of the movie. While this movie is a 2012 title, it will not replace the current ‘Anime of the Year 2012’ title holder, Another, mainly because this third movie of the series isn’t exactly much better than its two predecessors. Going past what you can see in the original TV series and End of Evangelion, is the new materials will finally reveal why on Earth Asuka’s name was changed in the second movie?

Story:-
Fourteen years after the world was destroyed by the Third Impact mega-explosion, the now-adult Ikari Shinji-kun (28-years old) broke free from the prison he is trapped in by his former NERV colleagues. But less than a month later, after mastering the piano, he destroyed the ravaged world again by causing the Fourth Impact mega-explosion. And that’s about it about this movie: piano playing, and the Fourth Impact.

An uncomfortable amount of air time is spent on Shinji's struggles with the piano.

As you can see in the paragraph above, this third movie of the reboot series has the thinnest plot between all the movies. I think this is because the writer doesn’t have any TV series plot to adapt anymore. Therefore, the third movie also has the slowest pacing when compared to its two predecessors, it is as if you are watching a typical mecha anime TV series, an example would be the currently airing Kakumeiki Valvrave which I have personally previewed for a few episodes. The flow of the original story is also actually the best of the three movies, mainly because the writer doesn’t have to do adaptation of the TV series anymore. So, in other words, the presentation aspect for this movie is definitely the best amongst all titles in the reboot series.

As for the original plot itself, unfortunately to say that the quality doesn’t measure to what seen in the original TV series at all, and to a lesser extent, the plots in the first two movies too. Personally I think the plot in first few episodes of the aforementioned Kakumeiki Valvrave is better than the one in this movie. And I have already taken into consideration the fact that the writer of the former has already commits one major cock-up story-wise in that first 4 episodes I have watched. I will elaborate on this one once I get to review it in the future. With this movie, the reboot practically reverts to your average cookie-cutter mecha title like Valvrave is.

But there is still one movie left for the writer to salvage the plot of the reboot series, just like how Kakumeiki Valvrave still have more episodes to repair the damage done by the cock-up I have mentioned above. Maybe after the Fifth Impact splits the planet in half, I will then can decide whether the original portion of whole reboot package is worth it or not.

Another good thing the third movie do have is that I like the Nagisa Kaworu of this movie is much better than the version in the TV series. Maybe it is because of the piano tutelage, but he is more forthcoming than he is in the TV series. Due to limited length of his character appearance in the movie, his character development is pretty much non-existent though, as if he is there only as a breathing plot device than a normal character. I hope he will appear again in the final movie just like what he says at the end of this one.

As expected, Asuka’s name change has not been explained, yet, in this movie, and by the time the movie ends, her character is worse than the one in TV series. I say this because considering the way the story goes so far, I don’t think her past will be touched the way it was done in the TV series, and this is a shame just like how the second movie omits the battle where she and Shinji fought the Angel with two cores. Only Rei managed to keep her character comparable with her TV series version. As of now, Shinji of this movie is a bit better than the one in the TV series, although he tried hard in this movie to reverse the situation.

The ending of this movie is less intense than the second movie’s, but still enticing enough to make me wait for the final movie slated for review in 2016.

Music:-
Finally, the ED theme of this movie is the best from all 3 movies to date. A definite improvement if you ask me. The OST has stagnated since the second movie though.

Animation/Direction:-
The third movie still retains the excellent animation quality seen in its two predecessors. Choreography of action scenes in this movie is up to par with the ones in the second movie too, which in turn is better than the ones in the first movie. The directing has been markedly improved, as mentioned above, mainly because of the original plot.

Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. The original story is inferior to the TV series material, but this movie’s Kaworu do mitigate some of that weakness, and so are the improvements in the story’s presentation. The Fifth Impact movie hopefully will see him rise up like a phoenix, and hopefully also raise its final rating with him.